Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.25

Woodward, Inc. (NASDAQ:WWD) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, October 22nd, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be given a dividend of 0.25 per share by the technology company on Thursday, December 5th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.61%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st.

Woodward has increased its dividend by an average of 18.9% per year over the last three years. Woodward has a dividend payout ratio of 17.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Woodward to earn $5.95 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 16.8%.

Woodward Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ WWD traded down $1.16 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $164.31. The company had a trading volume of 281,148 shares, compared to its average volume of 419,407. Woodward has a twelve month low of $119.03 and a twelve month high of $188.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.01 billion, a PE ratio of 28.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.37. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $164.00 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $168.61. The company has a current ratio of 1.96, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26.

Woodward (NASDAQ:WWD) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 29th. The technology company reported $1.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.52 by $0.11. Woodward had a net margin of 11.47% and a return on equity of 17.16%. The company had revenue of $847.69 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $853.29 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.37 EPS. Woodward’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Woodward will post 5.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Truist Financial upgraded shares of Woodward from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $152.00 to $187.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 21st. TD Cowen reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $160.00 target price (down previously from $186.00) on shares of Woodward in a research report on Friday, October 4th. StockNews.com downgraded Woodward from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on Woodward from $228.00 to $201.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Woodward from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $170.00 to $190.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Woodward currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $174.67.

Woodward Company Profile

Woodward, Inc designs, manufactures, and services control solutions for the aerospace and industrial markets worldwide. The company operates in two segments, Aerospace and Industrial. The Aerospace segment provides fuel pumps, metering units, actuators, air valves, specialty valves, fuel nozzles, and thrust reverser actuation systems for turbine engines and nacelles, and flight deck controls, actuators, servocontrols, motors, and sensors for aircraft.